You can’t beat fun at the ol’ ballpark

Posted on June 17, 2011

Luke Hochevar #44 and Eric Hosmer #35 of the Kansas City Royals get ready in the dugout before the game against the Oakland Athletics at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum on Thursday, June 16, 2011 in Oakland, California. (Photo by Brad Mangin)

 

There was a baseball game played in Oakland yesterday at the, wait for it, O.co Coliseum (awful!). The A’s were hosting the Royals, the sun was out, and I headed out to the Mausoleum to get some pictures of the new-look A’s and the hot rookies on the Royals roster. I was excited to get out to the park after many days of editing indoors, and I was looking forward to seeing some good friends.

My day started out great as soon as I made my way into the always exciting A’s media dining room. A’s media services manager Debbie Gallas and veteran AP staff photographer Eric Risberg joined me for lunch (pork tenderloin, rosemary potatoes and yellow broccoli) and the hilarity ensued. Great stories (Debbie is a hoot) were told, and the fresh commentary about the release of the “Money Ball” movie trailer was worth the ten bucks I paid for the above-mentioned lunch, chocolate chip cookie and Dr. Pepper. I hated for lunch to end, but I needed to get down on the field to start work. I needed to shoot hot-shot Royals rookies Eric Hosmer and Mike Moustakas in the dugout before the game started. I needed some candid moments, and luckily the kids from Kansas City were loose and cooperative.

Once the game started my goal was to try and get some good stuff of Moutakas in action (Hosmer was not in the lineup, which really sucked ass) and the A’s flashy and exciting rookie second baseman Jemile Weeks. As we get closer to the summer solstice  the light gets so harsh everything looks bad early in the game, so I always start shooting back lit from third base. We had a decent play at the plate (see above) early in the game as the A’s seemed to be playing with new life under new skipper Bob Melvin.

I finally got a frame I liked of Moustakas (see above) in the 6th inning, so it was time to head over to  first base and see how Risberg and John Mabanglo (great friend and EPA staffer) were doing. Risberg was in rare form, and the great Mabanglo was fresh off covering the NBA Finals, so he had terrific tales from Dallas and Miami. Let’s just say that Mop and Glo (as he was called several decades ago) knows how to travel and have a good time! It didn’t matter what the score was, and it didn’t matter who was winning. Add in some excellent commentary from Jed Jacobsohn and Michael Zagaris and we were all laughing so loud we were waiting for someone to come running in from the television truck outside to yell at us. You see, there was a hot microphone near us that was picking up everything we said and transporting the sound somewhere…

After the game I got home and faced several hours of editing and captioning. I had the Giants game on TV and my cats Willie and Mike to distract me. I also had to endure some taunting Tweets from Risberg, making me wish I was somewhere else. “Massive Bay area traffic jam. Seeking refuge @TraderVicsBay” said Risberg at 6:30pm. I knew what this meant. Risberg would be enjoying some rum before he made his way home to Marin. His final Tweet really made me realize that Risberg really knows how to live. “@bradmangin We wish you were here. Time for a Zombie at the trader and the start of the Giants and Dbacks game.” Once again The Count wins. Even when he is struck with adversity he finds a way to turn things around in his favor. I need to do that more often!